Known in the art is a very extensive variety of embodiments of control cables with "push-pull" actuation. Such control cables essentially comprise a steel cable provided with a sheath in which the steel cable has with respect to the sheath capacity to slide in both directions. In general, the ends of the steel cable include a respective steel cable terminal designed for attachment to said actuating control and actuated mechanism, such as the gear-shift lever provided in the vehicle driving compartment and the corresponding gear-shift mechanism. The ends of the control cable sheath are generally fixed to the structure of the automobile vehicle at functionally suitable points along the route of the control cable, said fixing being implemented by means of sheath terminals. It is known that, in addition to said steel cable and sheath terminals, the control cable can further include a self-adjusting or self-regulating device of the length of the sheathed portion of steel cable, the purpose of that device being to take up any distance tolerances which each particular vehicle has between said actuating control and actuated mechanism.
The control cables such as those described are supplied ex-works incorporating all the elements necessary for fitting thereof onto the automobile vehicle; that is, incorporating said steel cable and sheath terminals and, where necessary, said self-adjusting or self-regulating device. Under certain circumstances, arising for example due to considerable length of the control cable, or due to the conditions under which the control cable is fitted onto the vehicle so requiring, the fact that the steel cable terminal or terminals are fixed non-removably to the steel cable involves considerable difficulty and, therefore, increases the costs deriving from fitting the control cable on the vehicle.
The patent document DE-U-93,04,462 describes a terminal provided with a fixing device which comprises a tubular portion and a fixing body axially arranged. The fixing body is adapted to receive a stem fixed to one end of the steel cable of a control cable, said fixing body and stem being able to couple to each other. Superposed on said tubular portion, there is a closure body which, by sliding over said tubular portion and over the fixing body, produces the coupling between the fixing body and the stem, leaving the stem fixed to the terminal. The device according to DE-U-93,462 has the drawback that the fixing body could slide inadvertently, which would release the stem, with the consequent loss of effectiveness of the control cable.
The patent document U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,064 describes a cable length adjustment device, which comprises a fixing body adapted to receive a stem fixed to a cable. The fixing body and the stem are coupled to each other by means of respective fixing thread with a mutual engagement by manual rotation of the fixing body, the position of the fixing body being terminated by a blocking pin. The device according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,064 has the drawback that it requires manual operation of the fixing body and of the blocking pin, which increases the mounting cost.